I loved that shit.
american versions of anything always dial up the drama and dial down the information
and yes, the cyborg known as bobby flay is unsettling to look at
the saga between Masaharu Morimoto and the traditionalist chef faction that was despised his internationalism with Japanese cuisine was so epic
Michiba's 'broth of vigor' was common go-to that I've always wanted to try - broth of bonito flakes
'Ohta Faction' was the traditionalists group that took on Morimoto multiple times.
this wiki page gives some info about it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiro_Kandagawa#Iron_Chef
this battle was one of the traditionalists wins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRxf3eMhrn4
this one also features the Ohta Faction coming for Morimoto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucwrsFkW8SA
of course there's a blog for it https://brothofvigour.wordpress.com/tag/broth-of-vigor/
"The first Iron Chef Japanese, Rokusaburo Michiba, had a trademark Dashi which was labelled “the broth of vigour”. He prepared this at the beginning of almost every battle, bringing water to the boil with Konbu in it then putting an absolute bucketload of katsuobushi (bonito flakes) into the pot."
also from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rokusaburo_Michiba#Retirement
So supportive of Morimoto was Michiba that, before his infamous New York battle with chef Bobby Flay, Michiba gave Morimoto a large box of katsuobushi flakes with a hand-calligraphed message: "respect the old, but seek out the new."
A former roomate of mine and I came up with an elaborate backstory for Chairman Kaga one night and planned to do a comic called The Saga of Kaga. He's a 7000 year old vampire who must find the only human food that can slake his hunger. It would tell of how he amassed the great fortune which he spent to build his kitchen coliseum.
Losing contestants are his blood sacrifice. Other cool fun fact is the dude who made Earthbound was a judge in an episode.
Not when I was a kid, but I'm an enormous fan of the show as an adult. Fun Fact, Chairman Kaga also played Jean Val Jean in the Japanese production of Les Mis, and performed at the 10th anniversary concert alongside such greats as Colm Wilkinson and Tommy Körberg.
Like without the English dubs? I dunno, probably on youtube somewhere
I've got an archive of them on a hdd some where - remember watching them late at night on the og Food network - it was one of the few channels that came in well on the 'free cable'
torrented the hell out of it when I finally got the chance
Also of you like super intense food shows check out Sweet Genius. An obvious fascist who looks like Foucault gives incongruous theming and mandatory ingredients and expects people to make baked and frozen desserts from scratch in 40 minutes. It's fucking stressful to watch. It rules.
